Patriotic @ MindSay

Today in church, at 11:11am on 11/11 2007, we paused to recognize and honor the veterans in our congregation. Today is Veteran’s Day.

Mo, Mutt and Bud may sound like three guys from a car repair supply company but they are actually my uncles (including two from my husband’s family) who served this country during WWII. They are the kind of men Tom Brokaw refers to as "the greatest generation."

Bud was a skinny, inexperienced private, trained in some new technology called "RADAR" when he got an unexpected front row view of the bombing of Pearl Harbor; and only somewhat more experienced when he was part of the land invasion that liberated the Philippines. Many years later, when he returned to the Philippines to accept a special commemorative commendation, he and his wife found themselves the intended, but unexpected victims of radicals who torched their high rise hotel, forcing Bud and Mid to tie sheets together Boy Scout style, and to escape the burning building by climbing and leaping to the relative safety of a nearby roof. Mid, his wife, suffered life-changing knee injuries that plagued her until she died. Bud lives with his kids in the midwest, lost in a dementia that keeps his war experiences alive, if only in his mind.

Mo was playing minor league ball when he answered the call to join the Marines. He was first among those who landed at Iwo Jima, historically known as some of the fiercest fighting of the Pacific war, but he was able to joke about it years later by insisting he had worked "banker’s hours" that day - landed by 9am and back on a hospital ship by 5pm, for surgery on a shoulder that was blown to bits by enemy fire. All hopes and dreams of a major league career as a pitcher sacrificed on a black sand beach somewhere in the Pacific. He can joke about it because, unlike many of his peers who died on that sand, he lived to tell about it - but the actual tale is much too horrific to share with kids and grandkids, hence the preferred jokes about "working banker’s hours." He enjoys a happy retirement in Texas, and attends veteran reunions with his new wife (after his first wife and mom to his sons died a natural death a few years back.)

Mutt was a member of the US Army’s famous "flying column" who answered the call from MacArthur to land at Manila, march 100 miles through enemy invested jungle in a desperate race to reach the civilian internees at the infamous Santo Tomas concentration camp before the Japanese could make "other arrangements" for them. The 1^st Calvary had already seen some fierce fighting at Leyte and other places, but they successfully freed the thousands of civilians before going on to be part of the planned land invasion of Tokyo. As we know, they didn’t have to invade Tokyo - instead Mutt ended up part of the color guard who stood on the deck of that battleship while MacArthur presided over the ceremony where the Emperor of Japan signed the petition of peace. Mutt lives in his Southern Ca bungalow where he’s been happily married for over fifty years, suffers from macular degeneration but still enjoys life. Last time I saw him I was dropping him off at senior center where he and his wife were joining a bus tour to Las Vegas.

Each one of these men are so special to me, and my kids - who have learned enough history to be as proud and thankful as I am of the efforts and service of these special veterans. When my husband and I took the kids recently to see the WWII Memorial in Washington DC we were especially taken with the brass bas-relief sculptures that line the left (Pacific) and right (European) sides of the entrance area. It was very meaningful to examine the pictures carefully enough to be able to understand what part of the war effort each plaque represented, and to identify soldiers in the pictures that seemed to represent each of the veterans we knew. We found each one of "our" WWII veterans on those brass plaques. "Our" vets all lived through the war. We know that other families don’t dwell on the plaques, but linger on the "Field of Stars" at the center of the memorial - stars that represent lives sacrificed in that war effort. Each star represents 100,000 souls. There are 400 stars.

Ronald Reagan said that if we forget what we have done, we will forget who we are. I remember what Mo, Bud and Mutt (and many more just like them) have done. Today is Veteran’s Day.

• A person that cares about what his country does
• A person that cares about how his country is seen by the rest of the world (for us, we are seen more and more as war-mongering, oil-addicted bastards)
• A person that doesn't give a shit what another person believes in, as long as he believes that man is born free, and should remain free
• A person that helps other people, native or foreigner
  
• A person that THINKS before he votes on an issue
• A person that listens to all opinions
  
• A person that freedom must never be sacrificed for safety (hence "Give me LIBERTY, or give me DEATH" - Patrick Henry)
• A person that will do what's right, not what's best for him
• A person that knows the difference between wasting lives, and spending lives
• A person that thinks all are created equally from the time they enter this world to the time they leave it.
• A person that is a Human Being first, and a Citizen second
• A person that speaks out when something is wrong
• A person that isn't afraid to speak their mind
• A person that defends the weak
• A person that seeks unity and despises hatred
• A person that despises corruption
• A person that is honorable
• A person that is noble (not in the monarchical sense)
  

Bored? Here are two 4th of July-ish videos I put together for the occassion. The linked one... it still kind of fits.

I had to turn off embeding for this video, so here's the link: Click Here.

This may be especially funny to some of my friends up north. This is a video I shot tonight while out driving. Here's the blip I wrote for it on YouTube:

This video is crazy stupid, I know, but that was the point.

For some really bizarre reason, it makes me giggle. The song playing kept coming on from the mix CD at the weirdest points so it was cracking me up while I was driving. So I turned the camera out, put the volume up, and tapped the ride through a somewhat rural farm area by my house. It just made me laugh.

BTW, if you look real close, you'll see the "ghetto tractor." Towards the end when I am making a right turn with the curve of the road, look to the left and you kind of see it. I called it the "ghetto tractor" just because. LOL!

By Samantha L. Quigley

American Forces Press Service

Feb. 27, 2007 – Two nonprofit groups that support servicemembers are inviting amateur and professional photographers to look through their viewfinders with a patriotic eye for the 2007 "I Love America Day Photo Contest."  The organizations -- "Flags Across the Nation" and the "Military Family Network" - both are members of America Supports You, a Defense Department program highlighting the ways Americans and the corporate sector support the nation's servicemembers.

Through its Community Connections Partnership program, of which Flags Across the Nation is a member, the Military Family Network supports the grassroots efforts of military-friendly organizations across the country, Peabody said. Flags Across the Nation is employing this partnership to help promote its photo contest.

"We're helping them promote it in (Hampton, Va.)," Peabody said. "We're having a huge ... push in combination with what we're doing with the Virginia Air and Space (Center) here throughout the month of March, which is free admission ... for all military families and veterans."

The organization will be displaying Flags Across the Nation artwork, as well as promoting this year's photo contest, she added.

Eileen Schwartz founded Flags Across the Nation with the goal of encouraging patriotism through the arts. She created "I Love America Day," first observed March 19, 2006, and later, the photo contest in celebration of that day, she said.

"I thought it was really important that we look at the really positive things about America and appreciate our freedom and really show respect for the American flag," she said. "There's no holiday at that time, and I wanted to bring recognition to the spirit of American and support for the troops."

This year marks the first photo contest, which coincides with Flags Across the Nation's second annual art contest of the same theme. So far the group has received about 100 photos for consideration.

"We wanted thousands," Schwartz said. "We just really, really encourage people to send us a photo."

Those who would like to enter the photo contest must submit via e-mail one unpublished photo that fits into one of five categories. The categories are: patriotism, liberty and freedom, military, Americana scenes of landscape culture, and images of the American flag.

All entries must be received no later than midnight Eastern Time on March 19. Thirteen entries will be selected to be included in a photo quilt that will become part of Flags Across the Nation's traveling exhibit, Schwartz said. Of those 13, three top photos will receive prizes.

"The top prize is $300 ... and every selected winner is going receive a 'Made in America' American flag," she said. "We picked 13 to honor the American flag and pay respect to the 13 original colonies and the 13 original states."

Criminal justice online leadership; and, police and military personnel who have authored books sponsored this article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism